G
Ghost Dancer
The pictures and videos everyone has been looking at were taken by me at events around Western Japan. I'm originally from America but have spent most of my life in Japan and run a high-performance vehicle export company here and compete in D1 Street Legal, MSC, J-Cup, and the Flat Out drift series on a regular basis in my 180SX (the black one with the red hood in the pictures on this thread and the one the hits the wall at the end of the second D1 Street Legal video while my wife was complaining!).
Just to clear up a few misconceptions. Except for the cars pictured at D1 Street Legal most of the cars you saw were privately owned and in many cases daily driven vehicles. Most of the drivers are privateers with very little sponsorship if any. Graphics are the standard here these days and don't reflect sponsorship at all.
A large majority of the cars at D1 Street Legal are either shop/company demo cars or owned by employees of shops/companies.
At the ''sokokais'' (practice days) you will only see a handful of shop cars. For example, yesterday I went to Bihoku Circuit for Shadow Skill's (drift team) sokokai. 3 or 4 times a month a shop or a team will hold a drift practice at Bihoku which I usually go to. The only shop cars there this time were V-Factory's C35 Laurel, NK Company's S14, and RYO's S14. There were about 50 cars in attendance.
Someone earlier on the thread mentioned that when they were in Japan (around Tokyo?) they didn't see any crazy wheel fitment. The style of tuning is pretty different depending on what part of Japan you are in. The whole ''hella flush'' thing is alot bigger here (Western Japan - Osaka, Okayama, Kobe, Hiroshima, Tsuyama, Tottori, etc..) than it is anywhere else due largely because of 326 Power in Hiroshima (Haruguchi). They along with Supermade really set the low and wide trend here.
In my experience Western Japan drivers are crazier as well. Everyone seems to know who Haruguchi is and has seen his videos but he's conservative in comparison to some of the drivers from Crazy Night (a team made up of the top drivers from Driving Sports, RYO, NK Company, V Factory, etc..) like my buddy Kawabata from Driving Sports. They have a saying around here... ''Big heart, big crash!''. If they eat it and the car isn't trashed then they think they weren't pushing it hard enough.
Someone also mentioned something about roll cages. In reality there are less caged cars than you would think. I would say only half the cars you see in the pictures have a cage. It's definitely a bad thing when crashing is a regularity at Bihoku. Yesterday an S14 locked up and flew off the track in the first corner coming out of the home straight. He ended up rolling and ended up landing upside down. Luckily the driver was okay but the car was totalled as the roof was literally smashed down to the level of the doors. Cages aren't a requirement but they probably should be. The only thing you have to have to drift at Bihoku is a harness and a helmet.
Getting on the track in Japan is really cheap. So much so that I go just about every week to practice. Anytime during the week from 8-4PM you can get on either the A or B course at Bihoku and drift to your heart's content for a mere 4,000Yen (about 35 USD). I only live 30 minutes away so its a short drive. Even if I didn't live near Bihoku in Japan there is usually a track within a 1 hour drive. I live in Tsuyama which is about 2 hours from Osaka and I have 3 very nice drift tracks to choose from all within an hour.
Tires are cheap as hell here as well which from what I understand is the biggest expense for you guys in the US. Yesterday I bought 4 235/40/17 Advan Neouva tires for about 100 bucks which I will be running up front. A pair will last me about 5 track days. I run about the same sizes in the rear but I'm not to picky about what brand as long as they are sport tires. The last bunch of tires I bought to use in the rear cost me about 50 bucks and included 5 pairs of 235/40 and 45 Falken and Yokohamas. Generally I go though one set of rears a track day.
I'll stop blabbering now. I actually saw this thread linked through my Youtube videos so I thought I would say hi. I'm going to be on vacation over the next few days so I'll actually have time to get our website up to snuff so if you guys want to check it next week (www.ghost-dancer.com) I'll have alot more event coverage and some feature cars up there.
Just to clear up a few misconceptions. Except for the cars pictured at D1 Street Legal most of the cars you saw were privately owned and in many cases daily driven vehicles. Most of the drivers are privateers with very little sponsorship if any. Graphics are the standard here these days and don't reflect sponsorship at all.
A large majority of the cars at D1 Street Legal are either shop/company demo cars or owned by employees of shops/companies.
At the ''sokokais'' (practice days) you will only see a handful of shop cars. For example, yesterday I went to Bihoku Circuit for Shadow Skill's (drift team) sokokai. 3 or 4 times a month a shop or a team will hold a drift practice at Bihoku which I usually go to. The only shop cars there this time were V-Factory's C35 Laurel, NK Company's S14, and RYO's S14. There were about 50 cars in attendance.
Someone earlier on the thread mentioned that when they were in Japan (around Tokyo?) they didn't see any crazy wheel fitment. The style of tuning is pretty different depending on what part of Japan you are in. The whole ''hella flush'' thing is alot bigger here (Western Japan - Osaka, Okayama, Kobe, Hiroshima, Tsuyama, Tottori, etc..) than it is anywhere else due largely because of 326 Power in Hiroshima (Haruguchi). They along with Supermade really set the low and wide trend here.
In my experience Western Japan drivers are crazier as well. Everyone seems to know who Haruguchi is and has seen his videos but he's conservative in comparison to some of the drivers from Crazy Night (a team made up of the top drivers from Driving Sports, RYO, NK Company, V Factory, etc..) like my buddy Kawabata from Driving Sports. They have a saying around here... ''Big heart, big crash!''. If they eat it and the car isn't trashed then they think they weren't pushing it hard enough.
Someone also mentioned something about roll cages. In reality there are less caged cars than you would think. I would say only half the cars you see in the pictures have a cage. It's definitely a bad thing when crashing is a regularity at Bihoku. Yesterday an S14 locked up and flew off the track in the first corner coming out of the home straight. He ended up rolling and ended up landing upside down. Luckily the driver was okay but the car was totalled as the roof was literally smashed down to the level of the doors. Cages aren't a requirement but they probably should be. The only thing you have to have to drift at Bihoku is a harness and a helmet.
Getting on the track in Japan is really cheap. So much so that I go just about every week to practice. Anytime during the week from 8-4PM you can get on either the A or B course at Bihoku and drift to your heart's content for a mere 4,000Yen (about 35 USD). I only live 30 minutes away so its a short drive. Even if I didn't live near Bihoku in Japan there is usually a track within a 1 hour drive. I live in Tsuyama which is about 2 hours from Osaka and I have 3 very nice drift tracks to choose from all within an hour.
Tires are cheap as hell here as well which from what I understand is the biggest expense for you guys in the US. Yesterday I bought 4 235/40/17 Advan Neouva tires for about 100 bucks which I will be running up front. A pair will last me about 5 track days. I run about the same sizes in the rear but I'm not to picky about what brand as long as they are sport tires. The last bunch of tires I bought to use in the rear cost me about 50 bucks and included 5 pairs of 235/40 and 45 Falken and Yokohamas. Generally I go though one set of rears a track day.
I'll stop blabbering now. I actually saw this thread linked through my Youtube videos so I thought I would say hi. I'm going to be on vacation over the next few days so I'll actually have time to get our website up to snuff so if you guys want to check it next week (www.ghost-dancer.com) I'll have alot more event coverage and some feature cars up there.
